New Delhi: The insanely popular YouTuber-bodybuilder-pilot Gaurav Taneja just proved that those who live by fame can also get arrested for it. Arrested by Noida police Saturday for trying to celebrate his birthday at Noida’s Sector 51 Metro, Taneja’s internet fame became a beast he could no longer control. And he seems to have particularly bad karma when it comes to airlines and metros.
This is not the first time the owner of three popular YouTube channels—Flying Beast, Fit Muscle TV, and Rasbhari Ke Papa—has hit the headlines. In 2020, he was suspended by AirAsia. He had raised concerns about the safety protocols followed by the airlines. After his tweet went viral, the DGCA instituted an inquiry and suspended two senior AirAsia executives for three months.
On Saturday, his birthday party nearly caused a stampede, according to the Noida police. Noida metro provides the option of celebrating birthdays inside a metro coach for anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per hour, but the guest limit is capped at 200. But once his wife Ritu Rathee, also a pilot and YouTuber, made the ‘surprise’ announcement on Instagram, hundreds of fans gathered outside the station. It was chaos. An FIR was registered against him under Sections 188 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code. Taneja was detained for a few hours before being released on bail. He has now issued a statement saying he will take ‘appropriate legal action’ over his arrest.
Also read: Had permission for metro coach booking, fans didn’t damage property: Gaurav Taneja
IIT graduate who became Flying Beast
If anything sums up Gaurav Taneja’s journey, it is the title of his 2019 TedX talk – ‘A life with new passions every day.’ He has met Barack Obama, started a fitness cult on YouTube, and held a free screening of The Kashmir Files in Delhi for those who couldn’t afford to watch it.
Born to a banker father and schoolteacher mother, Taneja completed his education in Gaurav Kanpur before joining BITS Pilani, Dubai. But he wanted the bigger prize – IIT. In 2004, with an all-India rank of 184, he got into IIT Kharagpur to study civil engineering. It would never be enough for the ‘Flying Beast’ – the name of his YouTube and Instagram handle – so he made it a point to get a pilot’s license.
Then the 2008-09 global financial crisis happened. The recession meant he could not find a job for the longest time – eventually joining Indigo in 2011. But his heart was in bodybuilding.
Taneja won his first-ever bodybuilding competition in 2013. It was a video of him in the gym preparing for the competition that raked in thousands of likes and views. It encouraged him to start sharing content through Facebook regularly. Taneja was one of the first Indians to garner popularity and make money through vlogging. In 2016, he started Fit Muscle TV on YouTube.
“The challenge is to stay at the level you have built for yourself and churn out content,” he told YourStory.
From how to do squats to choosing a brand of whey protein and busting diet myths, Fit Muscle TV covers it all.
By 2017, Gaurav Taneja’s popularity had soared. He started his vlogging channel, Flying Beast – it shows his life as a pilot, his run-ins with Bollywood celebrities such as John Abraham and Tiger Shroff, and his travels. The channel currently has 7.58 million subscribers, and most videos have more than a million views. Skip to 2020, he got married to another pilot-vlogger Ritu Rathee. They now have two children, and another avatar on YouTube – Rasbhari Ke Papa. It’s for his elder daughter.
It’s a long resume. Taneja’s Twitter bio reads ‘Capt Airbus320, IIT KGP Alumni,Pro Bodybuilder, certified Nutritionist. Vlogger, Pursuing Law @ Faculty of Law, DU. Proud Indian.’
He’s also a ‘whistleblower’.
Calling out AirAsia
In 2020, Gaurav Taneja was working for AirAsia as a pilot. He spoke out against the airline’s flying instructions to pilots in a video and was suspended.
Taneja reportedly said that “the airline had asked its pilots to do 98 per cent of landings in ‘Flap 3’ mode, which allows it to save fuel”. In certain airports, this could prove fatal. “If a pilot does not do 98 per cent of landings in ‘Flap 3’ mode, the low-cost airline considers it a violation of its standard operating procedure (SOP),” he alleged.
He also raised concerns over personnel policies including how sick leaves were accounted for by the airline.
As a result of him bringing up this issue, the DGCA instituted an inquiry into AirAsia’s operating protocols, and eventually issued suspension notices to two executives.
The video, which has 10 million views so far, has people lauding his courage and praising him for his commitment to passenger safety.
Also read: DGCA suspends top AirAsia officials after pilot alleged serious safety lapses
A vlogger pilot couple
Ritu Rathee, a pilot and Taneja’s wife, is also a YouTuber with her own fan following. Her popularity boomed when on 24 June 2020, Humans of Bombay shared her story on their Facebook and Instagram pages – it has nearly 1.5 lakh likes.
Rathee, who hails from a Haryana village, faced a lot of resistance when she expressed her desire to become a pilot and go to the US for her license. Life was tough before she made it – there were no jobs for nearly two years and her mother passed away.
Gaurav and Ritu met while working for Indigo. That relationship led to them tying the knot in 2016. Of course, when you are a vlogger couple, the marriage makes it to YouTube. It has glowing praises from their fans who call their journey ‘inspirational’ and say ‘success speaks for itself’.
The two started vlogging and creating content when it was still a new field in India. The stamp of success came when they were invited by Google with a few others to meet former US President Barack Obama in Singapore.
Gaurav and Ritu have two daughters, Rasbhari and Chaitravi, who each have their own Instagram pages.
Also read: Noida vs Gurugram race is heating up. All eyes on Chautala’s job quota and Yogi’s Jewar
No stranger to controversy
From small-town dreamers to social media giants, both Gaurav and Ritu Taneja have undertaken a fascinating journey. This popularity was also the reason for the Noida fiasco Saturday, and Taneja’s eventual arrest.
His social media timelines haven’t been free from controversy either. On 1 May 2022, when he tweeted a picture of his house-warming puja, he wrote: “On 3 Dec 1984, two families remained unaffected from Bhopal gas leak. They performed regular havan, which is a natural antidote to pollution.”
Some on Twitter questioned if he had really studied at IIT.
Despite the trolling and even the Noida Metro incident, his fans continue to rally behind the vlogger. And as for the incident itself, Taneja has a cheeky response:
Thappad se darr nahi lagta sahab…
Biwi ki surprise planning se lagta hai..#birthday— Gaurav Taneja (@flyingbeast320) July 11, 2022